Lufthansa to Europe: Think Fast!

I ran across this great time waster from an article in PCWorld. It didn't seem too great at first look but after one play I'm addicted. It's also a very creative and fun way to improve your geography skills (outside the US!).

Lufthansa to Europe: Think Fast!

Clipped from PCWorld. There's lots more great stuff if you click thru to the whole article.

clipped from www.pcworld.com Favorite Time-Wasters of 2007 Steve Bass Addictive Games Play FetchFido instead of working. It's easy...all you need to do is touch the black squares and avoid the red ones. Ha! Marbles is an updated version of Tetris. I didn't do so well. Launchball is a really, really addicting puzzle game. Have a deadline? Forget about it If you start playing Bloxorz, you'll kiss the rest of the day good-bye. (BTW, level one's a snap. It's downhill from there.) "Don't go there!" That was enough of a warning to ensure I'd ignore Brint K.'s advice and spend an hour with DesktopTD. It's not easy, for sure, but it's great for exercising synapses. Fair warning, this isn't a shoot-'em-up. You'll have to spend some time reading the instructions and warming up to the strategies. Save the cute bunny's life. You've got one minute to do it. So hurry up! (It took me two tries.)

Improve Your Vocabulary and Feed The World

This very cool site has an endless stream of multiple choice word associations. The more words you know the more grains of rice you contribute to lessen world hunger. It's for real. Real rice. Real people. Real game. Best time waster ever!

clipped from www.freerice.com Free Rice - For Each Vocabulary Word You Get Right, We Donate Free Rice through the United Nations to Help End World Hunger You have now donated 140 grains of rice.

PC World - Saudi Blogger Arrested, Held Without Charges

Saudi Blogger Arrested, Held Without Charges

A Saudi blogger whose writings were critical of religious extremism has reportedly been detained by Saudi Arabian officials, according to advocacy groups.

Elizabeth Heichler, IDGNS
Friday, December 28, 2007 10:00 AM PST

Saudi Arabian officials have reportedly detained a blogger whose writing has criticized religious extremism in the country, according to the two press freedom groups and a regional human-rights organization.

Blogger and IT professional Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan, 32, was taken into custody on December 10, the Committee to Protect Journalistsreported on Wednesday. His Arabic-language site now has a "Free Fouad" banner in English across the top.

In a letter sent to friends shortly before his arrest, al-Farhan wrote that he had been told that the interior ministry was investigating him and would pick him up within two weeks. At the time he described the worst case as being jailed for three days, but he was still being held without charge as of Friday, according to Joel Campagna, Middle East program coordinator for the CPJ in New York.

Al-Farhan's blog promotes political reform and bears the tagline, "Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, Shura and all the remaining Islamic values which are missing," along with a dedication to his daughters, according to a report on the website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Some of his more critical commentary has dealt with the question of religious extremism, Campagna said. Al-Farhan also recently posted a blog item criticizing ten well-known personalities who have close ties to the Saudi royal family, he said.

The Saudi government heavily censors Internet content, both political criticism and pornography, Campagna said. Contentious news or political commentary sites are frequently blocked.

There have been previous incidents of online writers suffering retaliation. In 2006, Saudi journalist Rabah al-Quwai', who had criticized religious extremism, was held for 13 days. In order to obtain his release he had to confess to having denigrated Islamic beliefs, and promise to would defend Islamic values in his future work, the CPJ reported.

Reporters Without Borders Thursday released a statement calling for al-Farhan's release; its current list of "13 Internet Enemies" includes Saudi Arabia.

Research into Internet content filtering by the OpenNet Initiative shows substantial blocking activity by the government of Saudi Arabia. The group says that filtering content for political reasons is the common denominator across the Middle East.

The CPJ last year detailed Saudi media censorship in its report, Princes, Clerics and Censors.

PC World - Saudi Blogger Arrested, Held Without Charges.

Why Social Networks Stink

clipped from www.pcmag.com Why Social Networks Stink ARTICLE DATE:  11.27.07 There's something annoying about the emergence of the now-ubiquitous social network. My displeasure reached a peak over the weekend when I was recording an edition of the Twit podcast in which Robert Scoble was ranking on the new Amazon e-book reader, the Kindle. His main complaint was that the product did not incorporate any social-networking structure. This was the last straw for me. I mean, exactly how plugged into the community do you actually have to be nowadays to be okay with yourself? On the whole, the social network is less about the social part and more about the sales pitch These are marketing engines and that is why they are valuable properties. The number of users is important only because they are the chumps at whom the sales pitch is aimed. All that this amounts to is a giant marketing engine to be used as needed to promote goods, services, and personalities.

This is a good description of a danger most of us don't consider as we move our lives online. The end of the article, however, points out something more personal -- ways our identity can be stolen.

clipped from www.pcworld.com Government-Sponsored Cyberattacks on the Rise Governments and allied groups worldwide are using the Internet to spy and launch cyberattacks on their enemies, according to McAfee's annual report on cybersecurity. This year, China has been accused of launching attacks against the United States, India, Germany and Australia, but the Chinese are not alone: 120 countries including the United States are said to be launching Web espionage operations, One attack against Estonia, allegedly carried out by Russia, disrupted government, news and bank servers for several weeks in April, McAfee notes VoIP is a new target of cybercriminals, and such social-networking applications as MySpace and Facebook are sure to be exploited more often, going forward, McAfee says Software flaws are sold for as much as US$75,000, and criminals can buy custom-written Trojans designed to steal credit card data

clipped from www.pcmag.com FBI Working on World's Largest Biometric Database 12.26.07 WASHINGTON - The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion project to build the world's largest computer database of biometrics to give the government more ways to identify people at home and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The FBI has already started compiling digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns in its systems, the paper said. In January, the agency—which focuses on violations of federal law, espionage by foreigners and terrorist activities—expects to award a 10-year contract to expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives, it said. At an employer's request, the FBI will also retain the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks, the paper said. If successful, the system, called Next Generation Identification, will collect the biometric information in one place for identification and forensic purposes, the Post said.

Queen Addresses Nation Via YouTube - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Queen Addresses Nation Via YouTube - News and Analysis by PC Magazine:

"A new Royal Channel has been created on YouTube, allowing Web surfers to view the queen's first Christmas broadcast in 1957, as well as other archive footage of the royal family and its events.

The catalogue is at www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel.

The queen, who writes the Christmas message herself and records it in one take, said all the world's great religions taught care and consideration for others less well off."

101 Greatest George Carlin Quotes

This is one of the few humans that makes any sense at all.

clipped from blogzarro.com 101 Greatest George Carlin Quotes I don’t have pet peeves — I have major psychotic fucking hatreds! A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. Have you ever noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? I wanna live. I don’t wanna die. That’s the whole meaning of life: Not dying! I figured that shit out by myself in the third grade. I used to be Irish Catholic. Now I’m an American — you know, you grow. No one knows what’s next, but everybody does it. The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.” Most people with low self-esteem have earned it. “No comment” is a comment. So far, this is the oldest I’ve been. Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.

Christmas Carols for Disturbed Friends

I'm humming #8 as I write this...most disturbing

clipped from gingembresplace.blogspot.com 1. Schizophrenia -- Do I Hear What I Hear? 2. Multiple Personality Disorder - We Three Kings Disoriented Are 3. Dementia - I Think I'll Be Home For Christmas 4. Narcissistic - Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me 5. Manic - Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.... 6. Paranoid - Santa Claus is Coming To Town To Get Me 7. Borderline Personality Disorder - Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire 8. Personality Disorder - You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, and I Don't Know Why 9. Attention Deficit Disorder - Silent Night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away? 10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.. . (received in an email from a disturbed friend) :D